News

MENA

Commenting on the recent announcement that 19 leading property professionals from around the world have been appointed to create the International Property Measurement Standards Coalition (IPMSC), the first global standard for measuring property, Alan Robertson,CEO of Jones Lang LaSalle Middle East & North Africa said:

“This is good news for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) real estate markets. For the first time investors will be able to use an internationally agreed standard methodology to measure property assets across the real estate market.

At the moment, real estate is measured differently between countries and even between different developers within the same country. This has resulted in the application of different measuring methods for calculating rentable or saleable areas. For example whether to include balconies within the saleable area of residential units or whether common areas such as corridors and washrooms should be included within the lettable area of an office building. This creates confusion and a lack of transparency in the market and consequently makes it difficult for both tenants and purchasers to make informed decisions.

This is a problem both here across the Middle East where no common standards are used, making it difficult to compare between options on the same basis. This has a direct impact on transparency and what exactly investors are buying or what occupiers are leasing. Research by Jones Lang LaSalle shows there is a clear correlation between transparency and investment in the real estate market. The adoption of a more structured approach to measuring buildings should therefore boost confidence and attract more investment into the regional real estate market.

Jones Lang LaSalle MENA thoroughly endorses the new approach. We don’t believe there is a requirement to establish separate national codes but we do encourage Government authorities and local developers to implement any new international measurement standards that emerge from this initiative.”